Mark Hunt: Why would anyone want to be a UFC fighter if this is how much we get paid?

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My main problem is indeed the sponsorships. If fighter pay isn't going to increase, then fighters should be allowed to wear whatever they want on their banners and shorts.

But if you are fronting all the bills that lead to these fighters getting exposure on tv/ppv shouldn't you have some say in what you are willing to allow? and would you allow it if it directly advertised a competitor to your own brand name or a major company sponsor?

I don't disagree in some cases the UFC is to strict or just downright cut throat when it comes to how they have handled some sponsors. They should have some say in the matter though.

But if you are fronting all the bills that lead to these fighters getting exposure on tv/ppv shouldn't you have some say in what you are willing to allow? and would you allow it if it directly advertised a competitor to your own brand name or a major company sponsor?

I don't disagree in some cases the UFC is to strict or just downright cut throat when it comes to how they have handled some sponsors. They should have some say in the matter though.

Some say, sure that is common sense. But they should allow sponsors that aren't in direct competition with them or with UFC's sponsors. Allow as in sponsor for free, not for 50k.

Let's take Anton Kuivanen as an example. He is well spoken and a gentleman, a good figure to bring the sport to the masses in Finland. Training partners and gyms in Finland don't prepare him that good for the UFC, the UFC itself doesn't pay lower tier fighters such as Kuivanen that much. So to get better he needs to train in USA (in his case ATT afaik). But that costs a lot of money. He can't really have a day job and focus on his career, so he needs sponsors. The fact that these sponsors from Finland have to pay 50k for the UFC hinders his ability to get sponsors drastically. I think he did in fact manage to get couple of sponsors during his UFC run that helped him actually have training camps in Miami. Hardly any Finnish sponsor is in any competition with UFC's sponsors.
And from what I remember his sponsors didn't really get anything out of it. They did it to help Kuivanen out, not for the exposure UFC gives them. There's hardly any useful exposure for a Finnish company in the UFC unless you are like Nokia or other big corporation.

Some say, sure that is common sense. But they should allow sponsors that aren't in direct competition with them or with UFC's sponsors. Allow as in sponsor for free, not for 50k.

Let's take Anton Kuivanen as an example. He is well spoken and a gentleman, a good figure to bring the sport to the masses in Finland. Training partners and gyms in Finland don't prepare him that good for the UFC, the UFC itself doesn't pay lower tier fighters such as Kuivanen that much. So to get better he needs to train in USA (in his case ATT afaik). But that costs a lot of money. He can't really have a day job and focus on his career, so he needs sponsors. The fact that these sponsors from Finland have to pay 50k for the UFC hinders his ability to get sponsors drastically. I think he did in fact manage to get couple of sponsors during his UFC run that helped him actually have training camps in Miami. Hardly any Finnish sponsor is in any competition with UFC's sponsors.
And from what I remember his sponsors didn't really get anything out of it. They did it to help Kuivanen out, not for the exposure UFC gives them. There's hardly any useful exposure for a Finnish company in the UFC unless you are like Nokia or other big corporation.

I'd certainly like to see them ease up and base the sponsor ship rates based on fighters and their exposure at various events.

In cases like you mentioned though there is absolutely no reason why these companies can not continue to sponsor fighters just because they can;t pay the UFC rates. (Especially if the case is true they are not doing it for exposure). Smaller companies can't benefit from their association with fighters through different venues besides being on a fighters banner or shirt at a PPV.

Guys like Anton Kuivanen can certainly make promotional appearances outside of events and be featured in more local or regiaonal promotional material to earn sponsorship money.

I'd certainly like to see them ease up and base the sponsor ship rates based on fighters and their exposure at various events.

In cases like you mentioned though there is absolutely no reason why these companies can not continue to sponsor fighters just because they can;t pay the UFC rates. (Especially if the case is true they are not doing it for exposure). Smaller companies can't benefit from their association with fighters through different venues besides being on a fighters banner or shirt at a PPV.

Guys like Anton Kuivanen can certainly make promotional appearances outside of events and be featured in more local or regiaonal promotional material to earn sponsorship money.

True. Kuivanen did get featured in the Finnish media during his UFC run quite a bit. But I'm not sure what kinda exposure his sponsors got from that. Since mostly (the ones I saw) were either talk show appearance on a public broadcast channel (you are not "allowed" to advertize on those channels), radio shows (can't see what he is wearing and we Finns don't really go out our way to namedrop sponsors) and newspaper articles.

I think some of his sponsors were mentioned on his blog and website. I think he even directly thanked some of them for helping him out to train in Miami in some interview/blog update. But it's still quite fucked up situation. The economy is what it is, so coming up with sponsors ain't easy in any sport, not to mention in MMA that's still somewhat small sport in here and the fact that you have to pay 50k for UFC doesn't help. I'm sure he would have had more than few sponsors if that wasn't the case. Or he personally would have benefitted more from his sponsors.

But I guess we are getting way off topic at this point, so I'll stop posting on this subject

But I guess we are getting way off topic at this point, so I'll stop posting on this subject

Probably a bit off topic yeah... his case is a little more rare then the average fighter I think with some creative management people behind him though he could actually turn this to his advantage. I'm sure some of the more mainstream UFC sponsors could use him to tap a market they may not already have a foothold in.

For me I think the pre-lim fighters are getting paid just fine at 10/10. Lets compare it to say going to University. Let's say for one year of University your books and tuition will cost you on the low end 11k. Most degree's are four years which means you paid ~44k to get that degree to start at the bottom of the pay scale. So if hypothetically a fighter stayed on the prelims and didn't get a pay raise but won three fights a year. In those four years he would have made ~240k wereas the student is -44k.

So lets be fair to the student and say they are a smart young person and work throughout his/her schooling and busts ass in the summer and weekends to make 20k a year. After tuition and books he would come ahead 9k and over 4 years would be at 36k. No where near the 240k the fighter made and to be realistic any fighter good enough to stick around as a pro would be getting a raise long before four years were up. Also there are not many jobs that will start you off at a 100k out of uni.

And to be fair the sucessful guys don't get into MMA for the job opprotunities, they are there because they love fighting and competing and have been doing atleast a martial art for years. Not everyone makes it through Uni and not everyone can be a pro fighter. If Mark doesn't like his pay cheque than he should take Tim's advice and go be a garbage man. Hell Tim should go take his own advice and go be a garbage man because I would really love to hear what those guys would have to say about UFC cheques after getting a check from what they would be doing if there were no MMA organizations around. Like really I'm at work close to 90 hours a week to come out with 100k a year and my job is no where near as fun as training for a fight